Disquiet Junto Project 0311: Ceramic Notation

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, December 18, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, December 14, 2017.

Disquiet Junto Project 0311: Ceramic Notation
Read a work of ceramics as a score in graphic notation.

Major thanks to Grant Wilkinson for instigating this week’s project.

Step 1: This week’s Junto project is our first graphic score in a while. The idea of a graphic score in this case is to read an image as piece of musical notation. Here, the graphic score is a photo of a sculpture, the sculpture a ceramic wall installation by Steven Geddes, who is based in London.

Step 2: To begin with, look at this photo of a piece by Geddes that is titled Notations:

Step 3: Study the image for its musical potential. Imagine the image — not merely the sculpture, but the photo of the ceramics — is intended as musical score. Ask yourself, What does it sound like?

Step 4: Compose a piece of music that is a musical interpretation of this score.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If your hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0311” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.

Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, December 18, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, December 14, 2017.

Length: As long as you see fit. Three minutes feels about right.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0311” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 311th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Ceramic Notation: Read a work of ceramics as a score in graphic notation) at:

5 Most Recent Posts

Current Activities

• February 6, 2019: First day of the new semester of the 15-week "Sounds of Brands" course I teach once a year at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
• March 22, 2019: I'm giving a talk at the Algorithmic Art Assembly, two days of events in San Francisco: aaassembly.org.
• December 13, 2019: This day marks the 23rd anniversary of Disquiet.com.
• January 7, 2020: This day marks the 8th anniversary of the Disquiet Junto.
• Ongoing: The Disquiet Junto series of weekly communal music projects explore constraints as a springboard for creativity and productivity. There is a new project each Thursday afternoon (California time), and it is due the following Monday at 11:59pm: disquiet.com/junto.
• My book on Aphex Twin's landmark 1994 album, Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, published as part of the 33 1/3 series, an imprint of Bloomsbury, is now in its second printing. It has been translated into Spanish, and is due out soon in Japanese, as well. It can be purchased at amazon.com, among other places.

disquiet junto

The Disquiet Junto is an ongoing weekly collaborative music-making space in which restraints are used as a springboard for creativity. Subscribe to the announcement list at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto. There is an FAQ. ... These are the 5 most recent weekly projects: